AGRICULTURAL    RESOURCES 


OF    GEORGIA. 


A'  D  D  E  E  S  S 


BEFORE    THE 


Mtmi  panto  fatweitlijm  d  $tm$h 


A.  T      MACON 


DECEMBER      13,      1860 


;Y     JOSEPH     JONES,    'M.     T>. 

Chemist  of  the  Association,  and  Professor  of  Medical  Chemistry  in 
the  Medical  College  of  Georgia,  at  Augusta. 


ATTGUSTA,    GA: 

STEAM  PRESS  OF  CHRONICLE  &  SENTINEL, 
1861. 


Digitized  by  fhe  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://archive.org/details/agriculturalresoOOjone 


ADDRES 


Members  of  the   Cotton 
Georgia,  Friends  and 


Mr.  President,  Officers  and 

Planters'  Convention    of 

Fellow-  Citizens  :■ 

The  learned  Pliny  in  his  great  work  upon  Na- 
tural History,  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  Earth, 
even  with  Romans  ;  and  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  as 
well  as  his  houor,  to  become  the  advocate  of  her 
upon  whom  alone  of  all  parts  of  nature  we  have 
bestowed  the  name  which  implies  maternal  vene- 
ration, lor  she  is  the  common  parent  of  us  all, 
receiving  us  at  our  birth,  nourishing  us  when 
born,  and  ever  afterward  supporting  us,  and  final- 
ly when  we  are  rejected  by  the  rest  oi  nature  she 
embraces  us  in  her  bosom,  and  covers  us  with 
especial  tenderness. 

If  this  great  man  who  comprehended  all  the 
sciences  and  learning  of  his  time,  thought  in  not 
unnecessary  to  arouse  the  interest  of  Roman  agri- 
culturists, and  to  defend  their  noble  calling  by 
I  showing  that  the  earliest  surnames  were  derived 
from  agriculture,  and  that  the  various  ranks  and 
distinctions  of  state  had  no  other  origin  than  the 
pursuit,  of  agriculture,  and  by  reminding  them 
that  in  the  earlier  and  more   fertile  and  virtuous 

Eeriods  of  Rome,  the  lands  were  tilled  by  the 
ands  of  generals,  and  the  soil  exulted  beneath 
the  plough-shear  crowned  with  laurels,  and  guided 
by  husbandmen  graced  with  triumphs  — if  the 
Roman  censor  Cato,  the  violent  opponent  of  luxu- 
ry and  dissipation,  and  the  sternest  of  ancient 
moralists,  thought  it  not  beneath  his  dignity  to 
defend  ths  agricultural  population  as  producing 
the  bravest  men,  the  most  valiant  soldiers,  and  a 
class  of  citizens  the  least  given  of  all  to  evil  de- 
signs :  surely  the  present  attempt  to  advocate  the 
claims  of  the  earth,  and  to  incite  and  encourage 
and  defend  her  cultivators,  imperfect,  feeble  and 
humble  though  it  be,  will  not  seem  unnecessaiy. 
The  citizens  of  Georgia  need  not  the  examples 
of  the  past,  great  and  illustrious  though  they  be, 
to  incite  them  to  the  defence  and  cultivation  of 
the  noblest  and  most  virtuous  of  all  employments 
— they  have  but  to  look  to  the  benevolent  founders 
of  the  colony  of  Georgia,  who  may  well  challenge 
the  respect  of  the  world,  in  their  noble  and  gene- 
rous designs  and  efforts  to  found  a  colony  of  active 
and  enlightened  and  virtuous  agriculturists,  who 
should  not  only  reclaim  the  dense  forests  and 
swamps  from  nature,  but  should  a'so  reclaim  the 
still  darker  and  wilder  savages. 

The  motto  "Non  sibi  §ed  aliis,"  which  graced 
*4ke  Colonial  seal  of  Georgia,  well  expressed  the 
disinterested  and  noble  zeal  of  these  noble  men, 
jftvho  expended  their  time,  labor,  money  and  lives, 
i  for  the  good  of  others,  reserving  for  themselves 
*no  other  reward  than  that  of  approving  con- 
sciences, and  the  gratification  of  virtuous  ac- 
tions. 

'    And  here  we   cannot  refrain  from  quoting  the 

i|testimony  of  an  eye  witness  to  the  efforts  of  these 

founders  of  the  Colony  of  Georgia,  to  establish  an 

enlightened  system  of  agriculture,  for  it  will  afford 


pleasant  and  profitable  materials   of  refleci 
Agriculturists  of  the  present  day. 

Francis  Moore,  in  the  year  1755,  two  years  after 
the  first  settlement  of  Georgia,  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  years  ago,  thus  describes  the  2rr- 
den  established  near  Savannah  by  the  Trustees, 
for  the  use  of  the  first  settlers  of  Georgia,  and 
the  development  and  encouragement  of  a  scientific 
system  of  agriculture  : 

•'There  is  near  the  town,  (Savannah)  to  the 
east,  a  garden,  belonging  to  the  Trustees,  consist- 
ing of  ten  acres;  the  situation  is  delightful— one- 
half  of  it  is  upon  ti.eflpof  a  hill," the  foot  of 
which  the  river  Savannah  washes,  and* from  it 
you  see  the  woody  islands  in  the  sea.  The  remain- 
der of  the  |  nd  some  plain  low 
ground  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  where  several  fine 
^springs  break  out.  In  the  garden  is  variety  of 
soils;  the  top  is  sandy  and  dry,  the  sides  of  the 
hill  are  clay,  and  the  bottom  is  a  black  rich  gar- 
den mould,  well  watered.  On  the  north  part  of 
the  garden  is  left  standing  a  grove  of  a  part  of  the 
old  wood,  as  it  was  before  the  arrival  of"  the  Colo- 
ny there.  The  trees  in  the  garden  are  mostly 
Bay,  Sassafras,  Evergreen  Oak,  Pellitory,  Eick"- 
orv,  American   Ash  and  Laurel  Tulip. 

"The  garden  is  laid  out  with  cross-walks  Rant- 
ed with  orange  trees,  hut  the  last  winter,  a  good 
deal  of  snow  having  fallen,  had  killed  those  upon 
the  top  of  the  hill,  down  to  their  roots,  but  they; 
being  cut  down  sprouted  again,  as  I  saw  when 
I  returned  to  Savannah. 

"In  the  squares  between  the  walks  were  vast 
quantities  of  Mulbi  r  is  being  a  Nursery 

for  all  the  Province,  and  every  planter  that  de- 
sires it.  has  young  trees  given  him  gratis  from  the 
Nursery.  These  white  Mulberry  trees  were  plant 
ed  in  order  to  raise  silk,  for  which  purpose  several 
Italians  were  brought,  at  the  expense  of  the  Trus- 
tees, from  Piedmont,  by  Mr.  Amatis  ;  they  have 
fed  worms,  and  wound  silk  to  as  great  perfection 
as  any  that  ever  came  out  of  Italy.  But  the  Ital- 
ians falling  out,  one  of  them  stol^  away  the  ma- 
chines for  winding,  broke  the  coppers,  and  spoil- 
ed all  the  eggs,  which  he  could  not  steal,  and  fled 
to  South  Carolina.  .The  others  who  continued 
faithful,  had  saved  but  a  few  eggs  when  Air. ' 
Oglethorpe  arrived,  therefore  he  forbade  any  silk 
should  be  wound,  but  that  all  the  worms  should 
be  suffered  to  eat  through  their  balls,  in  order  to 
have  more  eggs  against  next  year.  The  Italian 
women  were  obliged  to  take  English  girls  appren- 
tices,°whom  they  teach  to  wind^iud  feed;  and  the 
men  have  taught  our  English  gardeners  to  tend 
the  Mulberry  trees,  and  our  joyners  have  learned 
to  make  the  machines  for  winding. 

"Besides  the  Mulberry  tree,  there  are  iu  some 
quarters  in  the  coldest  part  of  the  garden,  al! 
kinds  of  fruit  trees  usual  in  England,  such  as  ap- 
ples, pears,  &c. 

"In    another    quarter  are  olives,    figs,  vines,' 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  SEOR< 


pomegranites  and  such  fruits  as  are  natural  to  the 
warmest  parts  of  Europe. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  hill,  well  sheltered  from 
the  north  wind  and  in  the  warmest  part  of  the  gar- 
den, there  was  acollectiou  of  West  Indian  plants 
and  trees,  some  coffee,  some  cocoa-nuts,  cotton, 
Palma-christi,  and  several  West  Indian  physical 
plants,  some  sent  up  by  Mr.  Eveleigh,  a  public 
spirited  merchant  at  Charlestown,  and  some  by 
Dr.  Houston,  from  the  Spanish  West  Indies, 
where  he  was  sent  at  the  expence  of  a  collection 
raised  by  that  curious  Physician  Sir  Hans  Sloan, 
■  fqx  to  collect  and  send  them  to  Georgia,  where  the 
climate  was  capable  of  making  a  garden  which 
might  contain  all  kinds  of  plants  ;  to  which  design 
his  Grace  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  the  Earl  of  Der- 
by, the  Lord  Peters,  and  the  Apothecary's  Com- 
pany contributed  very  generously,  as  did  Sir 
Hans  himself. 

"These  quarrels  amongst  the  Italians  proved 
fatal  to  most  of  these  plants,  and  they  were  labor- 
ing to  repair  that  loss  when  I  was  there,  Mr. 
Miller  being  employed  in  the  room  of  Dr.  Hous- 
ton, who  died  iu  Jajteica.  We  heard  he  wrote  an 
account  of  his  having  obtained  the  plant  from 
whence  the  the  Balsamum  Capivi  is  drawn  ;  and 
that  he  was  in  hopes  of  getting  that  from  whence 
the  Jesuits  Bark  is  taken,  he  designing  for  that 
purpose  to  send  to  the  Spanish  West  Indies. 

"There  is  a  plant  of  Bamboo  Cane  brought  from 
the  East  Indies  and  sent  over  by  Mr.  Towers, 
which  thrives  well 

"There  were  also  some  Tea-seeds,  which  came 
from  the  same  place  y  but  the  latter,  though  great 
care  was  taken,  did  not  grow." 

A  voyage  to  Georgia  begun  in  the  year  1835, 
&c,  by  Francis  Moore — London  1744. 

From  these  statements  of  Francis  Moore,  we 
see  that  the  founders  of  the  colony  01  Georgia 
were  equal  to,  yea  far  ahead  of  the  Agriculturists 
of  the  present  day,  in  their  enlightened  efforts  to 
introduce  the  most  important  products  of  all 
countries,  and  to  establish  an  enlightened  system 
of  Agriculture  in  Georgia. 

The  founders  of  the  colony  of  Georgia  endeavor- 
ed to  introduce  the  cultivation  of  the  great 
staple  of  the  South  fifty  years  before  its 
successful  cultivation  ;  and  within  two  years  after 
the  settlement  of  the  colony,  these  enlightened 
Agriculturists  had  experimented  with  Tea  and 
Coffee  and  the  Vine,  which  are  only  just  now  re- 
ceiving attention  at  the  hands  of  Southern  Agri- 
culturists. 

It  has  been  announced  as  our  duty  as  well  as 
our  privilege  and  honor,  to  consider  upon  the 
present  occasion  the  Agricultural  resources  of 
Georgia. 

In  the  brief  space  of  time  now  at  my  command, 
Ilcan  no  nothing  more  than  present  the  most 
general  views. 

Georgia  has  been  divided  by  the  hand  of  na- 
ture into  three  zones,  with  very  distinct  geologi- 
cal, zoological,  climatic,  botanical  and  Agricul- 
tural features. 

First,  the  low«st  and  what  may  be  called  the 
tropical  zone,  commencing  in  a  chain  of  islands 
and  rising  by  a  very  slow  acclivity  from  the  At- 
lantic Ocean  to  an  elevation  of  from  10  to  30  feet, 
is  bounded  at  the  distance  of  30  miles  from  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  by  another  more  elevated  plain, 
differing  in  the  structure  of  its  soil  and  in  the 
character  of  its  vegetation. 

In  the  first  low  plain,  which  may  well  be  termed 
the  tropical  zone,  there  are  numerous  swamps, 
clothed  with  a  mflgt  luxuriant  and  imposing  vege- 
tation— tfcu     tall  cypress,    the   splendid   magnolia 


grandifiora,  the  majestic  live  oak  with  its  mossy 
boughs,  the  luxuriant  sweet  gum  and  tupulo,  and 
the  impenetrable  canebrakes,  indicate  not  only 
the  fertility  of  the  soil,  but  the  warmth  and  mois- 
ture of  the  climate. 

These  swamps  discharge  their  waters  into  short, 
deep,  sluggish  streams,  and  increasing  in  breadth 
from  their  junction  with  the  rivers  and  interlock- 
ing with  each  other  form  a  chain  across  Georgia 
and  Carolina  to  the  Neuse  in  North  Carolina,  and 
southward  again  along  the  Atlantic  border  into 
Florida.  The  soil  of  the  river  bottoms  and 
swamps  and  marshes,  consists  of  a  rich  deposit  of 
vegetable  matter,  mixed  with  varying  proportions 
of  sand  and  clay,  sometimes  alternately  with  beds 
of  marl  and  sand  :  this  clay  deposit  varies  in 
depth  from  5  to  -50  feet,  and  contains  buried  deep 
beneath  the  surface  supporting  the  present  luxu- 
riant growth,  the  stumps  of  piny,  cedar,  oak  cy- 
press, and  other  trees;  and  in  some  localities,  as 
upon  Skiddaway  Island  and  Hyner's  Bridge,  near 
Savannah,  and  on  the  Brunswick  Canal,  between 
the  Altamaha  and  Turtle  Rivers,  bones  of  the  me- 
gatherium, a  gigantic  sloth,  and  of  extinct  varie- 
ties of  the  horse,  and  other  extinct  animals  simi- 
lar to  those  found  in  the  Pampas  of  South  Ameri- 
ca, an  analogous  formation  along  the  borders  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

The  existence  of  these  remains  of  ancient  for- 
ests, deeply  buried  beneath  the  present  surface, 
together  with  the  bones  of  these  extinct  animals,  • 
associated  with  sea  shells  identical  with  those 
now  inhabiting  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  prove  conclu- 
sively that  this  portion  of  Georgia  has  not  only 
been  but  recently  reclaimed  from  the  sea,  but  has 
been  subjected  to  successive  elevations  and  de- 
pressions ;  and  there  are  facts  to  show  that  the 
sea  coast  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  is  now 
slowly  settling,  and  if  this  continues  maDy  rich 
and  valuable  plantations  will,  in  the  process  of 
time,  be  covered  by  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic. 

This  rich  soil,  formed  from  the  washings  of 
Upper  Georgia,  brought  down  by  numerous  riv- 
ers and  deposited  in  a  shallow  sea  with  a  level 
bottom,  is  not  only  characterized  by  the  tropical 
aspect  of  the  palmetto,  Spanish  bayonet,  tall 
feathery  cypress,  and  glorious  magnolia,  but  to 
the  agriculturist  it  is  specially  characterized  as 
the  peculiar  region  for  the  successful  cultivation 
of  rice  and  long  staple  cotton.  Notwithstanding 
the  great  and  inexhaustible  fertility  of  these  in- 
lands swamps,  thej*  are  less  cultivated  now  than 
formerly,  and  the  population  of  this  region  has 
scarcely  increased  at  all  during  the  last  sixty 
years.  We  may,  in  these  swamps,  see  every- 
where the  marks  of  former  cultivation — old  em- 
bankments covered  with  large  trees,  and  the  en- 
closed lands  which  were  once  clothed  with  golden 
rice,  now  support  deuse  forests  of  cypress,  tupulo 
and  gum  ;  and  the  once  deep  and  broad  canals, 
which  were  vised  by  the  ancients  to  drain  these 
swamps,  are  now  covered  with  trees  and  choked 
up  with  trunks  and  limbs  of  dead  trees  and  ac* 
cumulated  sediment. 

The  sagacious  American  traveller,  William 
Bartram,  thus  describes  the  appearance  of  Sti 
John's  Parish,  now  Liberty  county,  in  the  year 
1773,  two  years  before  the  Revolutionary  war.    « 

"Obedient  to  the  admonitions  of  my  attendant 
spirit  curiosity,  as  well  as  to  gratify  the  expecta- 
tions of  my  worthy  patron,  I  again  set  off  on  mjj^ 
Southern  excursion,  and  left  Sunbury  in  company* 
with  several  of  its  polite  inhabitants  who  were 
going  to  Medway  meeting,  a  very  large  and  well 
constructed  place  of  worship  iu  St.  JobTn's  Parish, 
where  I  associated  with  them  in  religious  exercise 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


and  heard   a  very   excellent  sermon   delivered  by  j 
their  pious   and  truly  venerable  pastor,   the  Rev. 
Osgood. 

"This  respectable  congregation  is  independent, 
and  consists  chiefly  of  families  and  proselytes  to 
a  flock,  which  tLis  pious  man  led,  about  forty 
years  ago,  from  South  Carolina,  and  settled  in 
this  fruitful  district.  It  is  about  nine  miles  from 
Sunbury  to  Medway  Meeting  House,  which  stands 
on  the  high  road,  opposite  the  Sunbury  road.  As 
soon  as  the  congregation  broke  up  I  resumed  my 
journey,  proceeding  down  the  high  road  towards 
Fort  Barrington  on  the  Altamaha,  passing  through 
a  level  country,  well  watered  by  large  streams, 
branches  of  Medway  and  Newport  Rivers,  cours- 
ing from  extensive  swamps  and  marshes,  their 
sources  ;  these  swamps  are  daily  clearing  and  im- 
proving into/  large,  fruitful  rice  plantations,  ag- 
§randising  the  well  inhabited  and  rich  district  of 
t.  John's  Parish. 

"The  road  is  strait  and  spacious  and  kept  in 
excellent  repair  by  the  industrious  inhabitants, 
and  is  generally  bordered  by  tall  and  spreading 
trees  as  the  magnolia,  liquid  amber,  liriodendron, 
catalpa  and  live  oak,  and  on  the  verges  of  the 
canals  where  the  road  was  causewayed,  stood  the 
Cyprus,  laciacthus  and  magnolia,  all  planted  by 
nature  and  left  standing  by  the  virtuous  inhabi- 
tants, to  shade  the  road  and  perfume  the  sultry 
air. 

"The  extensive  plantations  of  corn  now  in  early 
verdure,  decorated  here  and  there  with  groves  of 
floriferous  and  fragrant  trees  and  shrubs,  under 
the  cover  and  protection  of  pyramidal  laurels  and 
plumed  palms,  which  now  and  then  break  through 
upon  the  sight  from  both  sides  of  the  way  as  we 
pass  along  ;  the  eye  at  intervals  stealing  a  view 
at  the  humble  but  neat  and  elegant  habitation  of 
the  happy  proprietor,amidst  arbours  and  groves  all 
day,  and  moonlight  nights  filled  with  the  melody 
of  the  cheerful  mock-bird,  warbling  nonpareil 
and  plaintive  turtle  dove,  altogether  presents 
view  of  magnificence  and  joy  inexpressibly  charm- 
ing and  animating.'' 

These  statements  of  Bartram  with  reference  to 
the  extensive  cultivation  of  rice  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  this  section  of  Georgia  are  substantiated 
by  facts  which  I  have  already  alluded  to  and  by 
the  exports  of  Georgia  at  that  period. 

The  great  value  of  these  rice  lands,  appears  to 
have  been  most  thorougly  understood  by  Gov. 
James  Wright,  who,  by  the  successful  manage- 
ment and  cultivation  of  the  low  lands  and  swamps 
of  Georgia,  not  only  acquired  a  large  fortune,  but 
also  by  his  successful  example  promoted  at  once 
emulation  and  industry  amongst  the  planters. 

In  1763,  the  exports  of  Georgia  consisted  of 
75,000  barrels  of  rice,  9,533  lbs.,  of  indigo,  1,250 
bushels  of  Indian  corn,  which  together  with  deer 
and  beaver  skins,  naval  stores,  provisions,  timber 
&c,  amounted  to  £27,021  sterling. 

In  1772,  the  exports  from  Georgia  in  217  ves- 
sels, amounted  to  £121,677  sterling,  and  consisted 
in  large  measure  of  rice. 

The  introduction  of  cotton  produced  not  only  a 
marked  effect  upon  the  cultivation  of  rice,  but 
upon  the  Agriculture  and  political  position  and 
commercial  relations  of  the  State. 

Previous  to  the  year  1788,  cotton  was  not  culti- 
vated in  Georgia  as  an  article  of  commerce ;  in 
this  year,  Richard  Leake  made  an  extensive  and 
successful  experiment  with  this  new  staple,  and 
in  1789,  John  Milledge,  Josiah  Tatnall  and  a  rice 
planter  of  Liberty  county,  Mr.  Gignelliat  made 
successful  and  extensive  experiments  with  cotton. 
The   cultivation  of   cotton    increased  greatly,   in 


1790,  20,000  pounds  of  ginned  cotton  were  brought 
to  the  Savannah  market,  and  in  the  year  1796, 
1,700,000  pounds  were  produced.  This  increased 
culture  of  cotton,  excited  by  its  greater  certainty 
and  greater  profit,  led  the  rice  planters  to  aban- 
don to  a  great  extent,  the  less  certain  and  less 
profitable  cultivation  of  the  inland  swamps. 

The  great  difficulty  in  the  cultivation  of  these 
inland  swamps,  is  the  uncertainty  of  the  supplies 
of  water — in  dry  weather,  it  is  impossible  to  ob- 
tain a  sufficient  supply  of  water,  and  in  wet 
weather,  it  is  impossible  to  draw  off  the  water 
from  the  rice  fields,  and  upon  many  places  as 
large  a  proportion  as  one  crop  in  four,  is  lost  by 
one  or  other  of  these  causes. 

From  my  own  personal  experience  in  planting 
one  of  these  inland  swamps,  I  am  perswaded  that 
the  great  measure  to  render  them  safe,  is  the  con- 
struction of  large  canals,  which  will  allow  a  free 
exit  of  the  waters  during  freshets. 

These  canals  cannot  be  dug  wtthout  increased 
labor,  and  as  the  laboring  force  in  this  section  of 
the  State  will  not  be  increased  until  the  tide  of 
emigration  to  other  newer  and  more  easily  culti- 
vated portions  of  the  State  is  arrested,  many 
years  must  elapse  before  these  immense  bodies  of 
lands  with  their  inexhuastible  fertility  will  be 
brought  under  thorough  cultivation. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  population  of  the  low 
country  of  Georgia  has  remained  stationary  for 
half  a  century,  and  notwithstanding  that  there  are 
thousands  of  acres  of  most  valuable  land  lying 
idle  ;  still,  it  is  a  pleasing  thought  to  the  Agricul- 
turists of  Georgia,  that  the  increasing  population 
of  Georgia  after  all  the  new  lands  shall  have  been 
cleared  up  and  settled,  will,  in  this  fertile  region, 
with  its  tropical  climate,  so  favorable  to  a  dense 
vegetation  find  a  wide  field  for  action,  and  will 
moreover,  find  that  this  is  the  garden  spot  of  Geor- 
gia. 

The  great  enemy  of  the  white  man  in  these  re- 
gions is  the  climate — no  white  man  can  ever  work 
with  impunity  in  this  climate — no  race  but  the 
African  can  ever  stand  the  burning  heat  and  fatal 
miasms  of  the  Rice  fields,  and  of  the  Cotton  fields; 
and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  first  attempt  to 
establish  African  slavery  in  Georgia,  originated 
in  this  section  of  the  State — and  especially  worthy 
of  note  that  the  reasons  which  led  the  citizens  of 
Savannah  and  the  surrounding  country,  to  peti- 
tion the  Trustees  of  the  colony  of  Georgia,  to  in- 
troduce negroes,  still  exists,  in  spite  of  the  rav- 
ings of  dishonest  abolitionism. 

The  freeholders  in  the  county  of  Savannah, 
finding  that  it  required  an  immense  expenditure 
of  physical  labor  to  clear  the  river  swamp  lands, 
covered  with  a  dense  forest — finding  that  the  air 
of  the  swamps  was  loaded  with  poisonous  quali- 
ties, which  generated  disease,  which,  if  not  fatal, 
ended  in  debility  and  entire  destruction  of  the 
constitution — finding  that  the  cultivation  of  the 
pine  lands  was  not  productive,  and  finding  that 
after  the  severe  labor,  exposure,  and  ill  health  of 
several  years,  they  were  unable  to  provide  even  a 
coarse  common  subsistance  for  themselves  and 
families,  addressed  an  earnest  appeal  to  the  Trus- 
tees of  the  Colon}'  of  Georgia,  in  the  year  1738. 

That  I  have  not  misrepresented  the  freeholders 
of  Savannah,  will  be  evident  from  the  following 
quotation  from  their  petition  : 

"We  have  most  of  us  settled  in  this  colony,  in 
pursuance  of  a  description  and  representation  of 
it  by  you  in  Britain,  aud  from  the  experience  of 
residing  here  several  years,  do  find  that  it  is  im- 
possible the  measures  hitherto  laid  down  for  ma- 
kinor  it  a  colnnv  can  succeed. 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  01 


"iJone  o:"all  those  who  have  planted  their  lands, 
have  beeu  able  to  raise  sufficient  produce  to  main- 
tain their  families  in  broad  kind  only,  even  though 
a.'i  much  application  and  industry  have  been  ex- 
erted to  bring  it  about,  as  could  be  done  by  men 
engaged  in  an  affair,  in  which  they  believe  the 
welfare  of  themselves  and  posterity  so  much  de- 
pend, and  which  they  imagine  must  require  more 
than  ordinary  pains  to' make  it  succeed;  so  that 
by  the  accumulated  expenses  every  year  of  provi- 
sions, clothing,  medicine,  <fec,  for  themselves, 
families,  and  servants,  ..several  of  them  have  ex- 
pended all  their  money,  nay  even  run  consider- 
ably in  deb:,  and  so  have  been  obliged  to  leave  off 
planting,  and  making  further  improvements;  and 
those  who  continue  are  daily  exhausting  more 
and  more  their  money,  and  some  daily  increas- 
ing their  debts,  without  a  possibility  of  being  re- 
imbursed, according  to  the  present  constitution. 
"This  being  now  the  general  state  of  the  Colo- 
ny, it  must  be  obvious  that  people  cannot  subsist 
by  their  land  according  to  the  present  esl  ' ■  i  h- 
ment  ;  and  this" being  a  truth,  result!.;-  from  trial, 
patience  and  experience,  cannot  be  contradicted 
by  any  theoretical  scheme  of  reaso!  : 

We  do  not  in  the  least   doubt   but  that  in  time 
silk  and  wine  may  be  produced  here,  particularly 
;  but  since  the  cultivation  of  rice  lauds 
lite  servants   only,  cannot  raise  provisions 
for  our  families,  as  before  mentioned,  therefore  it 
ta  like  .  \  ■  impossible  to   carry  on  these  manufac- 
tures according  to  the  present  constitution.  ";;"  *  * 
"  SToui   honors,  we  imagine,   are  not  insensible 
of  the  numbers   thathave  lett   this  Province,  not 
o  support  themselves  auy  longer;  and 
i...ose   6  who   have  money  ot   their 

jredit   with   their  friends,   have  laid  out 
n  rin  improvements,  and  lost  the 
.hi  such  precarious   titles;    and 
upon  the   present   establishment;  not 

above  two        I       ■  ■  persons,  except,  those  b 
on  _'..  fvants  sent  by  you,  have  come 

here     i  c    he  Df      ivo        ars   past,  either  to 

Sett  .i  i  or  encourage  trade,  neither  do  we  hear 
'..  y  to  com       intil  we  a  re  o 

terras. 
"  We  do,  from  a    inc  ;ard   to  its  welfare, 

o  bo.h  you  a  is,  beg   leave 

i  your  lEi  ne^iate  consideration  to  the  fol- 
v  misfortunes  and  the  deplpra- 
ke  ot  Jhe  country  ;  and  jjvhich   we    are  cer- 
tain, if  g  could  be  an  infallible  remedy    to 
both  : 

"The  want  and  use  of  negroes,  with  proper 
limitations;  which,  if '.gran  ted,  would  both  induce 
great  numbers  of  white  people  ti  come  here,  and 
also  render  us  capable  of  subsisting  ourselves  by 
raising  provisions  upon  our  lands,  until  we  could 
make  some  produce  from  it  for  exportation,  and 
i  i  [e  measure  to  balance  our  importation. 

are  very  sensible   of    the    inconveniences 

han    lire:   ly  and  do  daily  arise 

inlimii       use  o     tiegi  oes  ;    but   c  e   are 

il      hat  these  i   ight    be  prevented   by   a 

proper  limitation,   such    as    so    many   to    sued    a 

quantity  of  land,  or  in  any  other   manner   which 

your  honors  shall  thiu    tnc   Iproj    .. 

'..'■■' .  I  sun  ii,  tl ■    pari     ulai 

and  such  other,  privileges  as  his  Majesty's  most 
dutiful  subjects  in  America  enjoy,  you  will  not 
only  prevent  our  impending  ruin,  but  We  are  full, 
satisfied,  also,  will  soon  make  this  the  rnd*  flour- 
ishing colony  possessed  by  his  Majesty  in  Ameri- 
ca, and  your  memories  will  he  perpetuated  to  all 
future  ages,  our  latest  posterity  sounding  your 
praises  as  their  first  founders,  patrons   and   guar- 


dians ;   but  if,  by  denying  us  tL  tges,   we 

ourselves  and  families  are  not  only  ruined,  but 
even  our  posterity  likewise  ;  you  will  always  be 
mentioned  as  the  cause  and  au!  rs  of  thi  ir  mis- 
fortunes an  1  calamities,  which  we  hope  will  never, 
never  happen." 

ISr o t w  petition  of  the  free- 

holders of  Sa  -    refused   by  the  trustees; 

of  the  colon  i     ia,   and   notwithstanding 

t    at  it  ',.       I  1  br   counter  petitions   against 

i  in  the  colony  from 
the  Highlanders  of  Darienjjand  the  Saltzburghers 
of  Ebenezer,  slaves  were  continually  introduced 
into  the  colony  of  Georgia,  and  agriculture  ad- 
vanced, and  wealth  and  commerce  increased,  in 
exact  proportion  to  the  increase  of  slaves. 

Without  this   race,  which  alone   of  all  races  is 
capable  of   bearing    with    impunity,  and   in  fact 
thriving  better  in  our  hot  and  sickly  clima 
in  the  most  health}- climates  to  the  white  r. 
great  staples  of  the  South  could  not  be  cultivated; 
and  not  only  would  millious  of  now  weal 
ha]  i  ;  [inhabitants  be  brought  to  absolute  poverty 
and  starvation,  but  the  African  would  have 
remained  in  the  deepest  degradation 
vice  and    superstition,   defended   from  al!    inter- 
course and  shrouded  in  thi  ,     <. 
his  own  inhospitable  clim 

It  is  worthy  of  record  by  the  side  of  these  facts, 
that  this  seet'on  which  was  first  to  introduce 
slavery,  was  also  the  first  to  preach  the  truths  of 
the  gospel  to  the  slave;  and  there  now  lives  ir. 
this  region  a  devoted  minister  of  the  gospel,  who 
has  for  one  quarter  of  a  century,  devoted  his 
talents  and  suostance  to  the  religi  us  instriictionjftf 
the  negroes,  with  do  other  reward  than  that  of  an 
approving  conscience,  and  ,vho  alone  bas  accom- 
plished more  real  good  to  the  African  race  than 
all  the  abolitionists  in  tl  i  world. 

The  second  zone  ol  orgia  extends  from  the 
ooe  just  described,  in  a  —  therlj  direction  up  to  the 
falls  of  the  rivers,  and  is  bounded  upon  the  Xorth 
by    a  line  passing    thr  the  cities  of  Augusta, 

Macon  and  Columbus.  The  Southern  portion  of 
this  zone  is  elevated  70  feet  above  the  tropical 
zone,  and  after  maintaining  this  elevation  for 
tiiirty  miles  it  rises  again  abruptly  to  a  similar 
height,  and  then  gradually  rises  to  ihe  commence- 
ment o1'  the  primitive  region  which  constitutes 
the  third  zone. 

The  first  plain  is  composed  of  s  .  idy  soil,  and 
is  covered  chiefly  by  the  long  leaf  pine  and  scrub 
oak.  This  portion  of  Georgia  will  never  support 
a  dense  population,  and  will  be  valuable  chiefly 
for  its  limber.  The  northern,  western  and  south- 
western portions  of  this  zone  are  more  fertile,  the 
soil  contains  more  clay  and  in  many  plac 
upon  the  joint  clay  which  belongs  to  the  Burr 
stone  formation,  which  I  have  shown  to  be  re- 
markably rich  in  Phbi  phate  of  Lime. 

This  joint  clay,  and  in  fact  the  whole  country  is 
underlaid  by  the  Eocene  lime  formatio  i,  which 
may  always  he  reached  at  a  depth  varyiag  from 
10  to  60  feet  beneath  the  surface,  and.  w  ' 
manj  ■  aces  is  exposed  where  the  joint 
beeu  washed  off  by  the  denudations  ot'  former 
deluges. 

This  Eocene  lime  formati  i  c  ■  itaius  inexhaus- 
tible stores  of  lime  and  of  fhosphate  of  lime  and  is 
capable  of  supplying  the  Stale  with  lime  for  Archi- 
tecture and  Carbonate  and  Phosphate  of  lime  for 
agriculture  in  ine  chaustdbe  quantities  for  unnum- 
bered ages. 

The  value  of  those  marls  and  shell  limestone 
has  been  developed  in  my  recent  report  to 
your  honorable  body,  and  I  will  merely  state  that 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


in  an  ordinary  application  of  these  calcareous 
manures,  we  apply  more  phosphate  of  lime  than 
is  contained  in  a  most  liberal  application  of  the 
very  best  phosphatic  manures;  and  further, 
that,  the  value  of  lime  in  agriculture  has  been 
established  by  the  best  and  most  reliable  Agricul- 
turists from  the  days  of  the  learned  Pliny  to  the 
present  tine — in  England  the  experience  of  Agri- 
culturists has  been  that  the  majority  of  soils  can- 
not be  cultivated  with  advantage  until  they  are 
dressed  with  lime,  which  forms  the  basis  of  all 
good  husbaudry  ;  the  predictions  of  Baron  Liebig 
as  to  the  value  of  the  fossil  lime  formations  of  the 
chalk  and  ghault  of  England  are  now  being  veri- 
fied ;  the  celebrated  Chemist  of  the  Royal  Agri- 
cultural Society  of  England,  Prof..  Way,  is  now 
conducting  an  elaborate  series  of  experiments 
upon  the  action  of  lime  upon  English  soils,  which 
demonstrates  conclusively  its  great  and  absolute 
value  in  agriculture;  Prof.  Philip  Tyson,  of  Mary- 
land, in  his  report  of  the  last  year,  affirms  that 
the  farmers  of  many  portions  of  Maryland,  who 
had  abandoned  Marl  for  Commercial  Phosphatic 
manures,  are  now  returning  to  the  Marl  and  aban- 
doning Guanos  ;  within  the  past  week  the  dis- 
tinguished Southern  statesman  and  Agriculturist, 
Senator  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,  has  re- 
buked an  attempt  to  decry  the  value  of  marls  and 
shell  limestone  of  Georgia,  and  affirms  his  expe- 
rience "that  in  a  good  crop  year,  marl  judiciously 
applied,  would  increase  the  crop  100  per  cent.,  in 
an  ordinary  year,  50  per  cent.,"  and  in  the  num- 
ber of  the  Southern  Cultivator  just  now  being 
issued,  its  learned  editor,  C.  W.  Howard,  has 
brought  forward  reliable  tistimony  to  the  great 
value  of  lime  upon  Georgia's  soil— whoever,  there- 
fore, attempts  to  decry  these  inexhaustible  sources 
of  fertility,  is  an  enemy  to  the  planters  of  Geor- 
gia, and  must  be  either  grossly  ignorant  or  else 
actuated  by  improper  motives. 

In  addition  to  these  inexhaustible  deposits  of 
shell  limestone  and  marl  in  this  sectiou  of  the  sec- 
oud  zone,  there  are  beds  of  the  most  superior 
of  kaolin,  capable  of  furnishing  material  of  the 
finest  quality  for  China  ware  ;  and  in  the  future, 
when  Georgia  is  independent  of  the  North, 
and  clevelopes  her  manufactories  as  well  as 
her  agriculture  and  her  commerce,  her  China 
wares  will  rival  those  of  Europe  and  Asia. 

Here,  are  also  found  inexhaustible  quarries  of 
the  finest  burr-stone,  which  has  upon  trial  prov- 
ed equal  and  in  some  respects  superior  to  the 
French  burr  mill  stones. 

We  turn  now  to  the  third  zone,  which  includes 
all  that  portion  of  the  State  which  lies  north  of 
the  line  which  connects  the  cities  of  Augusta, 
Milledgeville,  Macon  and  Columbus. 

The  justly  celebrated  argillaceous  soils  of  this 
zone  which  have  resulted  from  the  decomposition 
of  the  granites  and  slates,  are  not  only  richly  en- 
dowed witn  all  the  elements  of  fertility,  and  es- 
pecially with  that  most  valuable  element,  potash, 
which  has  such  a  controlling  effect  upon  vegeta- 
tion, and  which,  m  these  soils,  has  been  derived 
from  the  decomposing  feldspathie  rocks  ;  but  un- 
der a  proper  system  of  culture,  are  capable  of 
being  maintained  in  their  primitive  state  of  fer- 
tility and  of  yielding  aouudant  harvests  which 
will  correspond  in  luxuriance  to  the  magnificent 
forests  of  Black  Walnut,  Chesnut,  Hickorv,  Elm, 
Red  Cedar,  short  leafed  Pine,  Black  Oak,  Red 
Oak  and  Spauish  Oak,  which  adorued  this  soil  in 
its  virgiu  fertility. 

With  a  rich  and  under  a  proper  system  of  cul- 
ture an  inexhastible  soil — with  the  purest  water 
and  the  healthiest  climate  in  the  world — with  an 


elevation  of  850  feet  upon  the  Southern  border, 
and  more  than  2,000  feet  in  the  Northern  moun- 
tanious  regions,  affording  inexhaustible  supplies 
of  water,  with  the  requisite  falls  and  water  power 
for  thousands  of  manufactories — with  the  cool 
bracing  and  delightful  and  fertile  vallies  of  the 
Etowah  and  Chattahoochee  rivers,  so  rich  in  mine- 
rals and  so  favorable  to  the  culture  of  wheat  and 
the  grasses — with  inexhaustible  mines,  of  gold, 
iron,  copper,  manganese  and  many  other  mine- 
rals— with  inexhaustible  quarries  of  slate,  granite, 
marble,  limestone  and  sandstone  for  architectural 
purpose; — with  rich  mines  of  coal  the  wealth  of 
which  has  not  yet  even  been  conjectured — with 
extensive  regions  of  country,  yielding  the  diamond 
and  other  precious  stones — with  mineral  springs 
of  the  greatest  medicinal  value — with  scenery, 
which  will  compare  either  in  its  grandeur  or  its 
beauty,  its  softness  or  its  sublimity,  with  any  in 
the  world,  this  zone  is  destined  not  merely  to  af- 
ford a  rich  field  to  a  teeming  and  busy  popula- 
tion, and  to  present  a  scene  of  the  busiest  and 
happiest  and  most  successful  industry  ;  but  it  is 
destined  under  a  new  and  independent  form  of 
government,  of  supplying  the  entire  South,  with 
the  most  delightful  watering  places,  equalling  in 
climate  and  surpassing  in  scenery  the  most 
fashionable  and  frequented  watering  places  of  the 
North,  and  we  may  add  even  of  Europe,  and  of 
supplying  the  entire  South  with  manufactured 
articles,  with  cotton  and  woolen  goods,  with  Rail- 
road iron,  with  arms  and  ammunition,  aud  with  a 
thousand  other  articles  for  which  she  is  now  de- 
pendent upon  England  and  the  North — it  is  des- 
tined nnder  a  new  and  improved  form  of  govern- 
ment to  support  splendid  seats  of  learning  and 
■  science,  which,  in  the  course  time,  will  rival  those 
of  Cambridge  and  Oxford — it  is  destined  under  a 
new  add  improved  system  of  government  to  re- 
alize what  should  be  the  golden  dream  of  e.very 
true  hearted  Georgian,  the  independence  of  his 
State,  in  all  that  constitutes  the  true  weal'.h,  pow- 
er, dignity  aud  happiness  of  a  people,  and  the  mu- 
tual depeuce  and  inalienable  union  and  friendship 
of  the  different  sections,  by  a  mutual  interchange 
of  the  products  of  labor. 

In  view  of  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  this, 
our  noble  State,  which  in  its  Southern  extremity, 
has  a  climate  suitable  to  the  cultivation  of  long 
staple  cotton,  sugar  cane,  rice,  indigo,  the  orange, 
olive,  pomegranate,  date,  lemon,  and  palm;  whilst 
in  the  northern  mouutaious  regions,  the  climate  is 
fully  eight  degrees  colder  and  is  favorable  to  the 
cultivation  of  wheat,  apples,  and  the  grape,  and 
thus  affords  a  field  for  the  successful  cultivation 
of  every  agricultural  product  cultivated  upon  the 
North  Americau  continent;  we  may  well  ask  the 
question  whether  the  agriculturists  of  Georgia 
have  improved  aright  these  great  natural  advan- 
tages'? If  we  attempt  to  decide  this  question  by 
an  examination  of  the  increase  of  her  population, 
we  will  find  : 

1st.  The  rate  of  the  decennial  iucrease  of  the 
entire  population  of  Georgia,  has  progressively 
diminished  from  1790  to  1860. 

2d.  The  population  of  the  first  settled  counties 
in  the  Southeastern  portion  of  the  State,  has  re- 
mained stationary  in  most  of  the  counties  for  the 
last  fifteen  years,  in  some  there  has  been  a  slight 
increase,  whilst  in  others  there  has  been  an  actual 
decrease  of  population. 

3i.  The  population  of  the  earliest  settled  coun- 
ties of  middle  Georgia,  has  in  most  cases  pro- 
gressively decreased  for  many  years  past. 

4th.  The  population  of  the  newly  settled  coun- 
ties of   middle  and  northern    Georgia,  notwith- 


8 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


standing  the  rapid  increase  in  the  first  years  of 
the  settlement  of  this  section  of  the  State,  is  now 
becoming  stationary  iu  some  counties,  and  in  a 
few  counties  has  already  commenced  to  decrease. 

5th.  The  counties  of  the  Northeastern  portion 
of  the  State,  the  geological  formations  of  which 
are  more  recent  than  middle  Georgia,  and  older 
than  those  of  the  cretaceous  and  tertiary  forma- 
tions of  Georgia,  have  been  but  recently  settled, 
and  in  most  cases  are  rapidly  increasing,  and  it 
is,  therefore,  at  the  present  time  impossible  to 
say  what  the  limits  of  the  population  will  be — es- 
pecially as  the  soil  contains  more  lime  than  any 
other  portion  of  Georgia,  and  appears  to  be  inex- 
haustible under  culture. 

6th.  The  counties  of  the  South-western  portion 
of  the  State,  embracing  the  cretaceous  and  more 
recent  Eocene  lime  formations,  like  the  counties 
of  North-western  Georgia,  hare-been  but  recently 
settled,  and  are  rapidly  increasing  by  emigration 
from  the  older  counties  of  the  State,  and  it  is  im- 
possible to  assign  at  the  present  time,  the  proba- 
ble limits  of  the  population  with  any  degree  of 
certainty.  We  may,  however,  from  a  careful  re- 
view of  the  rapid  increase  of  population,  and  from 
a  consideration  of  the  resources  of  the  soil  of 
North-western  and  South-western  Georgia,  affirm 
that  under  the  same  exhausting  and  reckless  sys- 
tem of  agriculture  which  has  been  pursued  in  the 
older  counties,  the  population  of  these  portions  of 
the  State  will,  in  the  course  of  fifty  years,  reach 
its  culminating  point,  and  the  tide  will  then  flow 
to  the  rich  lands  of  newer  States. 

If  we  examine  these  facts  collectively,  and  en- 
deavor to  determine  their  causes,  we  will  find 
that  the  main  cause,  which  is  of  far  greater  im- 
portance than  emigration,  changes  of  climate  and 
seasons,  the  value  of  produce  and  many  other 
causes  is  that  system  of  agriculture  which  takes 
for  granted  that  soils  are  inexhaustible,  and  which 
has  regarded  alone  the  interests  of  the  acting 
generation. 

The  lands  of  Middle  Georgia,  which  at  the  time 
of  their  original  settlement  were  clothed  with 
dense  andAnagnificent  forests,  aud  covered  with 
the  accumulated  mould  of  thousands  of  years,  and 
which  yielded  most  luxuriant  and  profitable  crops 
of  cotton  and  corn  to  the  early  cultivators,  who 
imagined  th=it  the-  oils  would  last  forever  without 
either  rest  or  manure,  and  without  any  attention 
to  hillside  ditching  and  plowing,  now  present 
the  monotonous  and  dreary  spectacle  of  barren 
red  clay  hills,  barely  supporting  stunted  crops  of 
cotton,  struggling  to  lift  its  fruit  a  few  inches 
above  the  hot  and  barren  ground  and  avoid  the 
pelting  of  the  sand,  hardly  saving  the  reputation 
of  the  planter  from  the  charge  of  sanded  cotton. 

These  bald  red  clay  hills,  marred  by  deep  fur- 
rows and  yawning  red  gullies,  and  by  deserted 
dilapidated  houses,  with  their  diseased,  half-dead 
fruit  trees,  will  long  remain  monuments  of  that 
system  of  agriculture,  which  has  disregarded  the 
value  of  the  vegetable  deposits  of  ages,  and  which 
has  had  for  its  great  object  the  enrichment  of  the 
living  generation,  regardless  of  the  interests  of 
future  generations. 

The  same  result  has  followed  the  same  system 
of  culture  in  the  Southern  portion  of  Georgia,  the 
effects,  however,  are  not  so  patent  to  the  eye, 
because  the  country  is  level,  and  because  the  riv- 
ers afford  in-  exhaustible  supplies  of  organic  and 
mineral  matters  to  the  rice  plantations. 

It  remains  to  be  demonstrated,  whether  not  the 
fruitful  plains  of  Southwestern  Georgia,  and  the 
fertile  vallies  of  Northwestern  Ga.  will  share  the 
same  fate.    The  great  questions  to  be  solved  by  the 


agriculturists  of  Georgia,  are  :  How  can  the  new 
lands  of  Northwestern  and  Southwestern  Georgia 
be  preserved  in  their  original  fertility  ?  Are  the 
native  resources  of  the  State  adequate  to  the  re- 
generation of  her  exhausted  lands  and  the  per- 
manent preservation  of  the  fertility  of  her  new 
lands? 

Upon  the  determination  of  these  questions  will 
depend  the  future  agricultural,  commercial  and 
political  progress  and  importance  of  Georgia. 

If  they  are  ignored  by  the  agriculturist,  certain 
it  is  that  the  lands  will  steadily  be  exhausted  ; 
their  value  will  steadily  diminish  ;  the  population 
will  as  steadily  emigrate  to  more  fertile  regions, 
and  our  State  will  not  attain  to  that  high  po- 
litical and  commercial  position  assigned  her  in 
Providence,  by  her  soil,  her  climate  and  her  pro- 
ductions. If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  resources  of 
Georgia  be  carefully  developed  and  employed, 
and  the  reckless  exhaustion  of  the  soil  be  checked, 
and  an  enlightened  system  of  agriculture  be  in- 
augurated, Georgia  will  be  capable  of  containing 
as  many  inhabitants,  black  and  white,  as  are  now 
found  in  the  territory  of  the  fifteen  Southern 
States,  and  will,  with  this  teeming  population,  be 
not  more  thickly  settled  than  Great  Britain  is  at 
the  present  day.  If  we  wish  to  conviuce  ourselves 
of  the  mighty  results  which  may  be  achieved  by 
an  improved  system  of  agriculture,  we  have  only 
to  compare  the  present  conditions  of  France  and 
England. 

In  this  comparison  we  shall  use  the  testimony 
of  a  French  writer  of  the  highest  authority,  as 
quoted  and  endorsed  by  the  leading  Agricultural 
journal  of  England,  and  shall  use  both  his  mea- 
sures and  his  calculations,  that  the  greatest  accu- 
racy may  be  maintained. 

No  stronger  testimony  than  this  of  M.  Leonce 
de  Lavergne  could  be  adduced,  not  merely  to 
prove  the  relative  conditions  of  England  and 
France,  but  more  especially  to  demonstrate  that 
the  commercial,  political  and  intellectual  condition 
of  a  State  depends  upon  the  condition  of  the  Ag- 
riculture, for  aside  from  the  very  high  qualifica- 
tions of  this  distinguished  Agriculturist  to  draw 
such  comparisons,  he  is  a  Frenchman — a  native 
of  that  country,  which  in  the  natural  gifts  of  soil 
and  climate,  is  far  superior  to  England. 

And  first  as  to  the  system  of  Agriculture  pur- 
sued in  France  and  England* 

France  has  devoted  herself  too  exclusively  to 
the  production  of  corn  crops,  which  are  the  im- 
mediate food  of  man,  without  sufficiently  consid- 
eting  the  means  necessary  to  uphold  the  fertility 
of  the  soil  under  this  exhausting  process. 

England,  on  the  contrary,  has  been  led,  partly 
by  the  nature  of  the  climate,  partly  by  design,  to 
take  a  sort  of  by-path,  which  reaches  corn  crops 
through  the  intervention  of  green  crops;  finding, 
in  the  rearing  of  cattle  and  the  supply  of  manure 
the  restorative  process  which  is  necessary. 

The  experiment  has  entirely  succeeded,  and  is 
extending  itself  day  by  day  ;  and  the  remarkable 
fact  is,  that  in  proportion  as  the  head  of  cattle 
increases  the  quantity  of  corn  increases  also;  the 

fa«n  iu  intensity  exceeds  the  loss  in  extent. — 
'hus,  on  a  surface  of  31,000,000  of  hectares,  re- 
duced to  20,000,000  by  the  waste  lands,  the  Bri- 
tish Isles  produce  more  food  for  animals  than  the 
entire  surface  of  France,  of  double  the  extent. 
Hence  the  supply  of  manure  is  in  proportion  three 
or  four  times  greater. 

The  average  produce  per  hectare  in  France  is 
6  hectolitres  of  wheat,  about  5  of  rye,  and  1  of 
maize,  or  buckwheat ;  collectively  about  11  hecto- 
litres.   In  England,  25  hectolitres  of  wheat  (3% 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


quarters  per  acre,)  more  than  double  in  quantity, 
and  three  times  more  in  saleable  value.  Scotland 
and  Ireland  are  included  in  this  estimate.  If  the 
comparisons  are  made  with  England  alone,  the 
results  are  far  more  striking.  This  little  country, 
not  larger  than  one-fourth  of  France,  produces 
38,000,000  of  hectolitres  of  wheat,  16,000,000  of 
barley,  3-4,000,000  of  oats.  If  France  produced  as 
much  in  proportion,  she  would  produce,  deducting 
seed,  150,000,000  hectolitres  of  wheat,  200,000,000 
of  oats  and  other  grains  ;  that  is  at  least  double 
her  actual  production.  Taking  all  products  into 
account,  animal  and  vegetable,  it  appears  that  the 
produce  of  England,  per  hectare,  nearly  doubles 
that  of  France. 

The  great  lesson  which  these  figures  teach  be- 
yond the  disproportion  of  the  result,  is  the  rela- 
tion of  vegetable  to  animal  products. 

In  France  the  vegetable  products  form  four- 
sixths  of  the  whole,  and  the  animal  products  two- 
sixths  only  ;  showing  at  first  sight  an  exhausting 
cultivation,  and  one  at  least  stationary.  In  the 
United  Kingdom  the*  animal  products  are  equal  to 
the  vegetable.  Thus  the  animal  products  alone 
of  an  English  farm,  are  equal  to  the  entire  pro- 
ducts, animal  and  vegetable,  of  a  French  farm  of 
the  same  extent. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  British  farm- 
ing, in  comparison  with  that  of  France,  is  the 
number  and  quantity  of  sheep.  According  to  the 
statistical  returns  and  estimates,  the  number  of 
sheep  in  France  and  in  England,  is  about  equal 
— about  35,000,000  of  sheep  in  France  and  35,000,- 
000  in  England.  But  this  apparent  equality  con- 
ceals an  inequality  the  most  marked.  35,000,000 
sheep  in  the  United  Kingdom  live  on  31,000,000 
hectares  of  land  ;  35,000,000  of  sheep  in  France 
live  on  53,000,000  hectares.  France,  in  order  to 
have  as  many  sheep  in  proportion  as  the  United 
Kingdoms,  ought  to  have  (30,000,000. 

If  the  comparison  is  made  with  England  alone, 
the  difference  is  far  greater.  England  feeds  351,- 
000,000  sheep  on  15,000,000  hectares  of  land  ;  that 
is  proportionally  three  times  as  many  as  France. 

But  the  great  difference  is  in  the  quality  of  the 
sheep,  upon  the  breeding  and  improving  of  which, 
with  a  view  to  early  maturity,  so  much  care  and 
attention  has  been  bestowed.  The  weight  of  an 
English  sheep  is  twice  that  of  a  French  sheep  ;  so 
that  an  English  farm  on  an  equal  surface  gives 
six  timesas  much  mutton  as  a  French  farm. 

In  the  case  of  cattle,  the  same  care  in  breeding 
from  selected  animals  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  continually  improving  the  races,  in  studying 
meat-producing  qualities  and  early  maturity,  has 
effected  results  similar  to  the  results  produced  in 
sheep.  France  possesses  10,000,000  head  of  cat- 
tle, the  United  Kingdom  8,000,000.  In  France 
three  products  are  demanded  from  cattle — labor, 
milk,  meat ;  in  England  only  two — milk  and  meat. 
The  yield  of  these  two  valuable  productions  is 
materially  interfered  with,  by  requiring  work  also 
from  cattle.  It  might  appear  at  first  sight,  that 
the  work  of  cattle  could  not  in  an  important  de- 
gree, .influence  the  supply  of  meat,  and  it  is  not 
difficult  for  people  to  persuade  themselves  that 
labor  in  utilizing  the  life  of  an  ox  enables  meat  to 
be  sold  at  a  lower  price.  But  experimeent  has 
proved,  that  if  this  is  sometimes  a  truth  in  detail, 
it  is  an  erroi  in  the  gross.  The  habit  of  labor 
forms  hardy,  rigorous  races,  which  like  men  devo- 
ted to  hard  work,  eat  much,  fatten  slowly,  deve- 
lop their  bony  structures,  make  little  flesh,  and 
make  slowly.  The  habit  of  inaction  on  the  con- 
trary, forms,  races,  gentle,  tranquil,  which  fatten 
early,  assume  round  fleshy  forms,  and  give  with 


equal  food,  a  far  larger  yield  to  the  butcher.  If 
we  look  to  labor,  the  ox  is  killed  when  he  has 
finished  his  task.  If  we  look  to  meat,  the  ox  is 
killed  at  the  moment  when  he  yields  the  largest 
amount.  Cattle  in  France  are  killed  too  young  or 
too  old ;  among  the  4,000,000  head  killed,  figure 
2,000,000  calves,  giving  each  only  30  kilogrammes 
of  meat.  Those  which  survive  are  killed  at  an 
age  when  the  growth  has  long  ceased,  i.  e.,  when  I 
the  animal  has  long  been  consuming  nourishment 
which  has  not  added  to  its  weight.  In  England 
on  the  contrary,  animals  are  killed  neither  so 
young,  because  in  their  youth  they  make  the 
most  meat,  nor  so  old,  because  then  they  make 
none.  The  moment  is  seized  "when  the  animal 
has  reached  his  maximem  of  increase.  In  France 
the  number  of  animals  killed  annually,  is  about 
4,000,000  head,  producing400,000,000  kilogrammes 
of  meat,  averaging  therefore  100  kilogrammes  per 
head.  In  the  United  Kingdom,  the  number  killed 
is  2,000,000  producing  500,000,000  kilogrammes  of 
meat,  averaging  250  kilogrammes  per  head.  Thus 
with  8,000,000  head  of  cattle  and  30,000,000  hec- 
tare's of  land,  british  agriculture  produces  500,- 
000,000  kilogrammes  of  meat ;  while  France  with 
10,000,000  head  of  cattle  and  53,000,000  hectares 
of  land,  produces  only  400,000,000  kilogrammes. 

(Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of 
England,  vol.  17,  1856,  p.  35.) 

Such  wonderful  results  as  these  achieved  by  an 
enlightened  system  of  agriculture,  should  encou- 
rage the  members  of  this  Cotton  Planters'  Asso- 
ciation to  persevere  in  their  attempts  to  inaugu- 
rate in  Georgia  a  more  perfect  system  of  agricul- 
ture, by  employing  the  experience  of  the  past  in 
this  State,  and  in  every  other  State  and  nation  in 
the  world,  by  inaugurating  an  enlightened  system 
of  practical  experiment,  and  by  developing  all  the 
native  resources  of  the  State,  which  have  been  so 
bountifully  bestowed  by  a  benificent  Providence — 
feeling  assured  that  their  labors  are  all  in  theright 
direction — feeling  assured  that  their  labors  in  the 
breadth  of  the  field  which  they  occupy,  in  the 
purity  of  the  motives  by  which  they  are  prompted, 
and  in  the  value  of  the  results  which  they  seek  to 
accomplish,  are  destined  to  obtain  the  highest  of 
all  rewards,  the  increased  wealth,  and  happiness, 
and  power  of  that  class  upon  which  depends  the 
commercial,  social,  and  politic^]  advaucoment  of 
our  noble  State. 

If  the  ancient  Romans,  so  justly  celebrated  for 
learning  and  courage,  regarded  the  planting  of 
colonies  amengst  their  noblest  works,  more  glo- 
rious than  wars  and  victories  ;  surely  such  an 
Association  as  this,  which  labors  to  increase  the 
prosperity  of  Georgia,  and  of  the  entire  South,  by 
improving  imperfect  systems  of  agriculture,  re- 
claiming exhausted  lauds,  preserving  virgin  lands 
in  a  state  of  primitive  fertility,  by  developing  na- 
tive resources,  by  advocating  and  sustaining  home 
mauufacturies,  and  thus  setting  in  motion  that 
circulation  of  wealth  and  prosperity  which  will 
continue  forever  upon  our  own  soil,  and  for  our 
own  citizens  ;  and  by  the  establishment  ot  direct- 
trade  with  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  thus  pro- 
moting such  an  interchange  of  ideas  with  all  na- 
tions, as  will  excite  intelligent  and  profitable  ac- 
tion— surely  such  an  Association  is  entitled  to  the 
respect  and*  confidence  of  virtuous  minds. 

The  Planters  of  Georgia,  and  of  the  entire  South ..  ■ 

have  at  this  time  the  highest  incentives  to  deep 
thought  and  decided  action— the  planters  of  Geor- 
gia and  of  the  entire  South,  have  at  this  time  the 
most  stirring  calls  to  vigorous  and  intelligent 
action. 

A    sectional    party  has    triumphed   which  has 


10 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


sworn  to  subvert  our  institutions,  and  excite  our 
slaves  to  rebellion  and  murder  ;  and  which  would 
not  merely  make  us  dream  of  fire,  poison,  and 
murder  in  our  sleep,  but  would  surround  us  with 
a  wall  of  fire,  and  apply  the  torch  of  the  incendiary 
to  our  cities,  our   farm-houses  and  our  dwellings. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  South  pays  more  than 
fifty  roillioms  of  the  seventy  millions  raised  an- 
nually by  our  government — notwithstanding  that 
the  South,  in  the  distribution  of  these  seventy 
millions  of  dollars  looses  each  year,  more  than 
thirty  millions  of  dollars  of  the  money  raised 
upon  her  own  soil — notwithstanding  that  the 
South  has  generously  submitted  to  those  arrange- 
ments by  which  the  North  commands  the  carry- 
ing trade,  and  in  fact,  the  entire  commerce  of  the. 
United  States — notwithstanding  that  the  South 
employs  the  North  to  carry  one  hundred  and 
forty -three  million  dollars  of  the  oue  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  million  dollars  of  Southern  exports, 
and  twenty-seven  million  dollars  of  the  thirty  - 
three  million  dollars  of  the  direct  imports  of  the 
South — notwithstanding  that  the  South  purchases 
more  than  sixty  million  dollars  worth  of  goods 
from  New  England  alone— notwithstanding  that  the 
South  expends  millions  upon  millions  of  dollars 
upon  Northern  hotels,  Northern  watering  places, 
Northern  Railroads  and  Northern  literary  and 
scientific  institution — notwithstanding  that  the 
South  during  her  entire  connection  with  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  has  never  asked 
protection  for  a  single  branch  of  her  industrial, 
Agricultural  or  Commercial  pursuits — notwith- 
standing that  the  South  has  generously  granted 
protection  to  all  the  departments  of  Northern  in- 
dustry— notwithstanding  all  this,  the  North,  has 
grown  brutal  upon  the  generosity  of  the  South, 
has  become  inflated,  inflamed,  drunk  and  mad- 
dened by  her  success;  and  now,  that  she  has 
doubled  us  in  population  and  feels  herself  secure 
in  numbers,  with  a  combination  o'  cowardice  and 
fiendishness  and  base  ingratitude,  unknown  in  the 
records  of  the  past,  threatens  to  destroy  that  in- 
stitution by  which  her  prosperity  has  been  main- 
ly achieved — threatens  to  degrade  and  desolate 
with  fire  swords  and  poison  her  generous  and 
confiding  twin  sister. 

Two  courses  are  before  the  Planters  of  the 
South  : — submission  to  a  sectional,  false  and  base 
party,  who  have  not  only  violated  all  good  faith 
and  justice,  by  the  nullification  of  the  fugitive 
slave  law  and  the  passage  of  most  odious  liberty 
bills  ;  but  who  have  trampled  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  in  the  dust  and  gloried  in  the 
basest  treason — submission  to  a  treacherous  and 
blood  -thirsty  party,  who  would  not  only  deprive 
you  of  your  political  position  and  rglits  in  the 
National  councils  and  in  the  common  Territories, 
acquired  by  common  blood  and  common  treasure, 
but  would  excite  your  slaves  to  rebellion,  apply 
the  torch  of  the  incendiary  to  your  peaceful 
dwellings,  and  poison  the  very  food  and  drint  of 
your  wives  and  children  :— or  a  brave  prompt  and 
full  assertion  Jof  your  right*  peaceably  if  possible, 
but  if  needs  be,  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  and  at 
the  mouth  of  the  cannon. 

The  cry  of  Union  at  this  time  at  the  South,  is 
the  cry  of  .submission. 

Union  with  whom?  Union  with  men  who  are 
the  sworn  enemies  of  your  institutions  and  of 
your  liberties? — union  with  men  who  glory  in  the 
thought  of  debasing  the  South  to  a  position  far 
lower  than  that  of  Mexico  or  of  St.  Domingo  ! — 
union  with  men  who  have  prostituted  even  the 
temples  of  the  most  biglr  to  the  basest  political 
purposes,   to    the   brazen    promulgation    of   the 


blackest  treason,  and  to  the  preaching  of  rapine 
fire  and  poison  ! — union  with  men  who  have  ex- 
cited, armed  and  deified  the  ruffians  who  murder- 
ed your  peaceful  citizens! 

Submission  to  what  ?  Submission  to  the  tyran- 
nical rule  of  a  purely  sectional  party  who  would  de- 
grade you  to  a  level  lower  than  that  of  the  native 
African  ! 

The  moment  that  the  spirit  of  fanaticism,  injus- 
tice and  treason  of  the  North  culminated  in  the 
triumph  of  the  Republican  party,  by  all  laws  of 
nations,  by  every  principle  of  justice,  the  com- 
pact of  these  free  and  independent  States  was 
broken  ;  and  he  who  cries  Union,  to  the  South, 
cries  submission  to  tyranny  and  anarchy. 

With  a  territory  of  eight  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand square  miles — with  more  than  three  thou- 
sand miles  of  continental  shore  line — with  four 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles  suited 
to  the  cultivation  of  cotton»— with  the  largest  body 
of  land  a  ul  the  best  climate  in  the  world,  and 
with  the  best  system  of  labor  thaf  has  ever  been 
devised  for  the  cultivation  of  the  great  staple, 
which  has  accomplished  almost  as  much  for  the 
civilization  of  the  world  as  the  printing  press,  and 
which  controls  not  only  the  destinies  of  the  North, 
but  of  England,  and  we  might  almost  say  of  the 
civilized  world — with  a  population  five  times  as 
great  as  that  of  the  United  States  at  the  period 
when  we  gained  our  National  Independence — with 
a  surplus  production  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
million  dollars — with  a  surplus  production  more 
than  three  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  entire 
North — with  the  ability  of  raising  for  the  support 
of  her  government,  fifty  millions  of  dollars  by  a 
system  of  taxation  not  greater  than  that  now  pur- 
sued— with  command  of  She  Mississippi,  with  its 
forty  thousand  miles  of  tributary  streams — with 
possession  of  most  of  the  great  Mississippi  valley, 
and  with  the  ability  of  commanding  the  whole  of 
this  splendid  region  which  by  itself  is  capable  of 
forming  a  splendid  empire  of  the  first  magni- 
tude— with  Mexico  on  the  west  and  southwest 
and  Cuba  on  the  south,  for  the  reception  of  our 
surplus  population  and  such  an  extended  cul- 
tivation of  the  great  stapples,  cotton,  rice, 
sugar  and  tobacco,  as  shall  meet  the  increasing 
demands  of  the  world  ;  the  South  is  not  only  in- 
dependent of  the  North  in  all  the  elements  of 
nationality,  but  if  relieved  of  the  unjust  oppres- 
sion of  her  Northern  robbers  she  will  form 
the  most  spleudid  and  powerful  empire  in  the 
world. 

Is  the  South  dependent  upon  the  North  ?  Is 
the  South  unable  to  secede  ?  Has  the  South  any- 
thing to  lose  bj'  secession  ? 

According  to.  the  last  published  official  Report 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  lor  1859,  the 
total  value  of  the  Exports  of  the  i  oite  I  Sta1  s 
from  the  1st  July  185b  to  the  -  - ' '  1 1  •  June  1859,  was 
$335,894,385,  and  ol  tiiis  amount  a  single  article 
of  Southern  produce — Cotton— -formed   §161,434,- 

The  threi  great  i-ticles  of  Southern  produce, 
Cotton,  Kice  ami  tobacco,  together  form  $184,- 
("17,109 — nearly  two-third  of  the  entire  exports 
oi   the  United  States. 

Of  the  $151,177,271}  remaining,  --<."7,*o-_,;:i0".  were 
gold  and  silver  bullion  ;  if  we  substract  this  from 
the  remainder  of  the  exports,  after  the  substrac- 
tion  of  the  Cotton,  Rice  and  Tobacco,  we  have  re- 
maining $93,674,971. 

It  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  other  products  of 
the  South,  sugar,  lumber,  pitch,  tar,  turpentine, 
hemp  and  other  articles,    constitute  at   the  lowest 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


11 


calculation,  one-fourth  of  these  remaining  nifcety- 
three  million  dollars. 

This  calculation,  therefore,  gives  us  only  $72,- 
756,225  as  the  value  of  the  exports  belonging  ex- 
clusively to  the  North.  The  exports  of  the  South 
then  are  more  than  two  hundred  million  dollars, 
and  are  nearly  three  times  as  great  as  those  of  the 
entire  North. 

Is  the  South  unable  to  support  an  independent 
existence?  Is  the  South  unable  to  go  to  war? 
Let  us  see  what  the  South  will  lose  by  asserting 
her  independence. 

The  South  will  lose  first  and  foremost  a  degrad- 
ing association  under  a  common  government,  with 
those  who  have  plundered  and  insulted  her;  the 
South  will  lose  a  multitude  of  transient  school 
teachers,  professors  and  preachers,  who  greet  us 
with  honied  words  to  our  faces  and  behind  ourbapks 
distribute  incendiary  ■..ocuinents;  the  South  will 
lose  a  multitude  of  transjBpt  merchants  and  ped- 
dlers, who  come  merely  to  make  a  fortune  by  sharp 
transactions  and  miserly  accumulations,  aud  then 
to  retire  to  colder  regions  where  they  may  with  im 
punity  enjoy  their  gains,  and  villify  those  who  only 
too  easily  and  generously  allowed  them  to  make 
their  fortunes  ;  and  above  all,  and  this  will  be  the 
greatest  loss,  the  South  will  lose  the  prayers  ancl  the 
curses  of  those  most  devout  Ministers,  who  thank 
heaven  they  "are  not  as  other  men  are,  Slavehold- 
ers, Mormons  and  Murderers;"  who  wax  valiant 
and  fight  tern  loodless   battles  with  the 

South,  within    the  cl  walls  of  their  most 

comfortable  churches ;  who  subscribe  most  libe- 
rally forSharpe's  rifles  and  iron  pikes  to  be  used 
by  men  in  the  destruction  of  their  fellow  Southern 
brothers,  hundreds  of  nvles  distant ;  who  sym- 
pathise intensely  with  iegroes  of  the  South, 
write  incendiary  tracts,  pay  liberally  the  midnight 
incendiary  a:  of  the  Planter,  and  win. 
at  the  same  tune,  disdain  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
orfeed  the  d  igroes  in  their 
very  midst. 

And  what  will  the  South  gain  b  r  the  .  ssertion 
of  her  independence  ? 

The  South  will  gain  h  t  commercial  as  well  as 
her  political  independence— the  thirty  million  of 
dollars  of  which  th(  South  is  now  yearly  deprived 
in' the  collection  ami  distribution  of  the  revenues 
of  the  government,  will  be  saved,  and  her  revenue 
which  goes  now  to  sustain  Northern  manufacto- 
ries and  Northern  ships,  will  be  distributed  among 
our  own  citizens,  and  will  be  expended  in  build- 
ing up  Southern  manufactories,  Southern  iwns 
and  Southern  commerce. 

Accordiug  to  the  I'a&t  published  report  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  (the  total  "imports  of 
the  Northern  States  for  the  year  ending  June 
SOth,  1859,  was  $305,812,849,  whilst  the  total  im- 
ports of  the  Southern  States  was  only  $32,955,2£  1, 
whilst  the  exports  of  the  Southern  States  during 
the  sataeoeriod  were  $200,000,000.  If  the  inde- 
pendenJBpt' the  Southern  States  was  established, 
our  NorrEeru  factors  would  be  displaced,  and  more 
,than  $2^0,000,000  of  imports  now  received  at 
Northern  ports,  would  enter  Southern  ports,  and 
all  the  duties  and  advantages  be  received  where 
they  of  right  belong. 

During  the  year  ending  June  SOth,  1859,  $143,- 
045,445  of  tiie  Southern  exports  were  carried  iu 
Northern  vessels,  whilst  only  $44,586,212  were 
earried  in  foreign  vessels  ;  during  the  same  pe- 
riod, $27,8118,653  of  the  Southern  imports  were 
brought  by  Northern  vessels,  whilst  only  $5,006, 
028  were  brought  by  foreign  vessels.  When  the 
independence  of  the  South  is  established,  the 
North  will  lose  the  protection  of  cunningly  devised 


laws,  and  will  have  to  enter  into  competition  with 
the  ships  of  the  world  for  this  carrjing  trade. 

The  Southern  patriot  should  enquire  with  the 
deepest  concern — what  has  become  of  all  this  im- 
mense amount  of  money,  annually  received  by 
the  South  for  her  great  staple  products  ? 

Has  her  greater  production  rendered  her  cor- 
respondingly greater  and  more  powerful  than  the 
North  ?  Has"  the  South  built  more  railroads, 
erected  more  factories,  and  supported  more  splen- 
did seats  of  learning,  than  the  North  ? 

We  are  compelled  to  confess  that  iu  all  perma- 
nent, agricultural,  industrial  and  educational  im- 
provements, the  North  has   surpassed  the  South. 

The  largest  proportion  of  the  money  received 
by  the  South  in  exchange  for  cotton,  rice  and  to- 
bacco, has  not  remained  in  the  South,  but  has 
Slowed  out  for  the  protection  of  the  North,  and  in 
the  purchase  of  Northern  aud  English  manufac- 
tured goods,  and  in  the  support  of  Northern  cities, 
Northern  watering  places.  Northern  commerce 
and  Northern  literary  and  scientific  institutions. 
Northern  authors.  Northern  papers,  journals  and 
books':  the  money  of  the  South,  therefore,  has 
not  fulfilled  i 

It  matters  not  what  the  income  of  a  nation  or  of 
a  man  maybe,  if  it  is  all  expended  abroad,  no 
permanent  benefit  will  he  obtained.  Money  to  be 
really  useful  to  the  country  where  it  is  produced, 
must  be  expended  in  that  country,  and  must 
change  hands  often  amongst  its  citizens,  aud  like 
the  life  giving  and  force  conveying  red  particles 
of  the  blood,  be  diverted  into  a  thousand  different 
chann  :1s,  and  accomplish  a  thousand  beneficial 
results.  It  must  build  up  and  sustain  manufacto- 
ries, it  must  circulate  in  a  never-ending  stream 
between  the  agriculturist  and  the  manufactnrer — 
it  must  build  ships  and  railroads— il  must  support 
those  great  institutions  of  science  and  learismg, 
which  will  react  upon  the  State  ancl  return  J  a  the 
development  other  resources  audio  the  scieutific 
improvement  of  her  agriculture,  arts,  and  manu- 
factures a  thousand  million  fold. 

ft  is  time  that  Southern  manufactories  should 
be  established  and  sustained  by  Southern  money 
—it  is  time  that  this  ruinous  drain  of  money  should 
be  stopped— these  great  and  vital  results  to  the 
South  can  be  accomplished  in  no  other  way  than 
by  establishing  her  independence.  The  fire 
and  sword  with  which  our  Northern  enemies 
threaten  us,  will  prove  our  ultimate  good  and 
their  final  injury. 

Need  we  attempt  to  excite  the  Planters  of  the 
South  to  action,  and  to  sustain  them  in  their  de- 
termination to  assert  their  independence,  by  show- 
in-  that  England  with  all  her  expression  of  sym- 
pathy for  our  Northern  en:  mies,  with  all  her  holy 
ho>ror  of  slaver:,  imported  during  the  year  1859, 
2  0S6,341  bales  of  cotton  from  the  South,  whilst 
from  all  other  sources  she  received  less  than 
800,000  bales— by  showing  that  England  has  three 
hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  invested  in  the 
cotton  manufactories,  and  four  million  inhabitants 
interested  in  the  cotton  trade,  and  that  in  1859 
exclusive  of  the  cotton  used  by  her  own  people 
and  employed  in  her  woolen  manufactories, 
8540,403,60(5  out  of  $650,503,185,  the  value  of  all 
her  exports  for  this  year  were  for  cotton  goods 
and  cotton  varus?— need  we  enter  into  a  history 
of  the  manufactures  of  England,  and  show  the 
powerful  and  unrivalled  influence  which  the  great 
staple  of  the  South  has  had  upon  the  development 
of  this  great  nation,  and  demonstate  that  England 
with  all  her  wealth  and  power  is  dependent  for 
her  very  existance  upon  the  cotton  crop  of  the 
Southern  States?— need  we   recount  the   fruitless 


12 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


expeiiments.  and  calculate  the  immense  sums  ex- 
pended i-y  England  in  her  attempts  to  supply  her- 
self with  cotton  from  her  possessions  in  Asia, 
Africa,  and  South  America,  to  demonstrate  that 
she  must  forever  remain  the  firm  ally  and  defen- 
der of  the  South,  and  the  natural  and  uncompro- 
mising rival  of  the  North?  need  we  recount  the 
progressive  increase  of  the  consumption  of  cotton 
m  France,  Belginm,  Holland,  Germany  and  Spain 
—that  in  1859  France  exported  $22,437,920  worth 
of  Southern  cotton,  Belgium  $1,155,328,  Holland 
$1,859,895,  Germany  $7,321,416,  and  Spain  $7,- 
222,942  ? — need  we  picture  to  you  the  filthy  condi- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  of  Europe,  during  the  mid- 
dle ages,  and  prove  that  the  twenty  thousand  hos- 
pitalsforjjlepers,  said  by  Mathew  Paris  to  have  ex- 
isted in  Europe  during  the  middle  ages,  were 
filled  by  inmates  who  were  lepers  because  they 
had  no  changes  of  clothing,  more  than  any  other 
cause,  and  were  diseased  because  they  were  in  an 
habitually  filthy  state  ? — need  we  prove  that  in- 
sufficient and  filthy  clothing,  more  than  any  other 
cause,  produced  the  terrible  epidemics  which 
committed  snch  fearful  ravages  in  the  middle 
ages? — need  we  point  the  planters  of  the  South  to 
all  these  well  established  facts  to  prove  that  their 
great  staple  will  prove  the  greatest  blessing  to 
mankind,  will  ever  prove  their  strongest  defense 
against  lawless  oppression,  and  will  ever  com- 
mand the  navies  and  armies  of  the  world? 

I  trust  not  my  countrymen.  I  believe  that  the 
spirit  which  animated  and  fired  the  hearts  of  our 
noble  revolutionary  fathers,  still  inspires  your 
bosoms,  and  that  you  will  need  no  such  facts  to 
sustain  the  firm  resolve  to  achieve  Southern  inde- 
pendence, peaceably  if  possibly — but  if  need  be 
through  fire,  carnage  and  blood,  at  any 
cost  and  at  any  sacrifice,  however  dear,  re- 
gardless of  every  object  and  result  except  the 
establishment  of  your  liberties.  I  believe  that  the 
Planters  of  the  South  will  never  rest  upon  the 
navies  and  armies  of  any  nation,  but  will  appeal 
to  the  God  of  battles  and  summon  to  the  conflict 
their  own  strong  arms  and  brave  hearts. 

I  have  spoken  of  these  subjects  which  interest 
us  as  citizens  of  the  South  as  they  have  impressed 
themselves  upon  myself  a  humble  citizen  of  the 
South  ;  I  have  dwelt  upon  them  because  the 
efforts  of  this  association  are  not  bounded  by  the 
confines  of  Georgia— we  aim  to  advance  the  Com- 
mercial and  Agricultural  interests  of  every  South- 
ern State  by  the  establishment  of  direct  trade  and 
the  inauguration  of  that  system  of  Agriculture 
which  will  preserve  the  lands  of  the  South  in 
a  state  of  permanent  fertility. 

I  have  now  completed  such  a  view  of  the  Agri- 
cultural resources  of  my  native  State  as  the  brief 
space  of  time  allotted  to  this  address  permitted — 
if  the  picture  falls  far  short  of  the  reality,  and  if 
measures  have  been  urged  which  are  inexpedient, 
the  errors  have  been  those  of  the  judgement  and 
not  of  the  feelings — as  a  descendant  of  those  who 
fought  and  bled  and  died  upon  Georgian  soil,  in 
defence  of  the  rights,  honor  and  liberty  of  Geor- 
gia and  of  the  original  States  of  the  Union,  I 
drank  in  with  my  mothers  milk,  love  veneration 
and  true  loyalty  to  the  Union  of  these  free  and 
independent  States  ;  the  first  name  which  I  was 
taught  to  revere  above  all  other  immortal  names 
was  that  of  Washington,  and  the  relations  which 
were  inculcated  as  second  only  to  those  with  my 
creator,  were  those  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  :  it  has  been,  therefore,  with  no 
ordinary  feelings  that  I  have  for  the  first  time  in 
my  life  lifted  my  voice  against  this  Union— but 
when  the  mother  who  bore  me   is  dishonored  and 


her  liberties,  and  her  existence  as  a  free  indepen- 
dent and  honorable  State  are  threatened,  every 
ties  which  binds  me  to  her  enemies,  even  those  of 
the  once  proud  and  glorious  Union  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  shall  be  sundered  and  fortune 
and  life  pledged  to  the  defence  of  the  sacred 
honor  and  liberties  of  Georgia. 

If  upon  the  present  occasion  I  have  in  the  de- 
sire to  point  out  the  defects,  and  tendencies  of  the 
present  system  of  agriculture,  appeared  to  dis- 
parage the  power  of  Georgia,  it  has  been  from  a 
too  anxious  regard  for  her  future  course  of  pros- 
perity, honor  and  glory. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  speak  slightingly  of  the 
resources  of  my  native  State  at  any  time  ;  and 
especially  at  this  time,  when  resistance — resistance 
to  insolent  oppression  and  defiant  treason,  re- 
sounds throughout  her  borders. 

With  a  population  of  more  than  one  million,  dis- 
tributed over  fifty-eight  thousand  square  miles — 
with  a  territory  three  hundred  and  twenty-two 
miles  in  length  from  North  to  North,  extending 
from  the  mild,  almost  tropical  climate  of  the  At- 
lantic coast  to  the  cool  bracing  climate  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  mountains  ;  two  hundred  and  twenty-four 
miles  in  breadth  from  East  to  West ;  watered  by 
fifty  streams  which  deserve  and  hold  the  name  of 
rivers--with  a  territory  embracing  almost  every 
geological  formation,  from  the  oldest  to  the  most 
recent  found  upon  the  Western  continent ;  the 
primitive  and  metamorphic  non-fossiliferous 
strata  of  Middle  and  Northern  Georgia,  with  its 
inexhaustible  mineral  resources  ;  the  older  fossi- 
liferous  formations  of  North-western  Georgia,  re- 
sembling the  celebrated  wheat  district  of  New 
York,  with  its  inexhaustible  deposits  of  limestone, 
iron,  coal,  and  other  minerals  useful  in  agricul- 
ture and  the  arts  ;  the  cretaceous  formation  of 
Western  Georgia,  with  its  inexhaustible  beds  of 
green  sand  and  marl  ;  the  Eocene  lime  forma- 
tion of  Southern  and  South-western  Georgia, 
with  its  inexhaustible  supplies  of  lime  and 
phosphoric  acid  ;  the  rich  alluvial  and  diluvial 
plains  and  river  bottoms  of  Southern  Georgia— 
with  a  territory  embracing  every  variety  of  soil, 
suitable  to  the  growth  and  culture  of  every  im- 
portant agricultural  product,  and  yielding  al- 
most every  mineral  useful  in  the  arts  and  agricul- 
ture— producing  annually  five  hundred  thousand 
bales  of  cotton,  and  with  capabilities  of  producing 
under  an  improved  system  of  agriculture,  and 
with  an  increase  of  population,  two  million  hales 
of  cotton — with  an  annual  surplus  production  of 
fifteen  million  of  dollars— with  1160  miles  of  Rail- 
roads, which  have  been  built  and  '.-quipped  at  an 
actual  cost  of  twenty  millions  of  dollars — with  25 
banks  in  a  sound  condition,  returning  during  the 
last  year  $9,028,07S,  as  their  taxable  stock  paid 
in — with  33,345,289  acres  of  cultivated  land,  val- 
ued according  to  the  tax  returns  of  I860,  at 
$161,764,955  collars;  cultivated  by  450, 02telaves, 
valued  at  $302,694,855— with  city  and  towB  prop- 
erty, money  and  solvent  debts,  merchandise  ship- 
ping, tonnage,  stocks,  and  manufacturies  to  the 
value  of  $207,832,640 — with  an  increased  value  of 
land  during  the  past  year  of  $12,217,075,  and  in- 
creased value  of  slaves  during  the  same  period 
of  $31,074.450 — with  a  balance  in  her  Trea- 
sury of  $274,820,  and  with  a  tax  upon 
slaves  and  other  property  of  only  6)4  cents  on  the 
$100— with  a  taxable  property  of  $609,589,876, 
which  if  distributed  equally  amongst  the  entire 
population,  adults  and  children,  black  and  white, 
would  give  to  each  inhabitant  six  hundred  dol- 
lars ;  and  if  we  were  to  estimate  the  absolute  and 
not  the  tax  value  of  the  property,  this  sum  would 


AGRICULTURAL  RESOURCES  OF  GEORGIA. 


18 


be  even  greater  than  one  thousand  dollars  to  each 
individual,  black  and  white,  man,  woman  and 
child — with  fourteen  hundred  churches,  capable 
of  accommodating  half  a  million  of  persons — 
with  twelve  hundred  primary  and  public  schools 
with  twelve  hundred  teachers;  fifteen  colleges  for 
males  with  thirteen  hundred  students  ;  twenty- 
seven  colleges  and  high  schools  for  females,  and 
twenty-five  hundred  female  scholars— with  fifty 
newspapers  and  pepiodicals — with  resources  and  a 


territory  capable  of  supporting  with  even  greater 
ease  than  England  supports  her  dense  popula- 
tion, fifteen  millions  of  inhabitants,  Georgia  has 
been  and  will  ever  continue  to  be,  if  she  improves 
aright  the  blessings  of  Providence,  the  Empirb 
State  of  the  South — Georgia  is  not  only  the  Em- 
pire State  of  the  South,  but  she  has  the  resources 
and  the  power  to  maintain  her  independence  with 
or  without  the  South,  and  to  form  bv  herself  an 
EMPIRE. 


~{ 


€ 


* 


